to fix the restroom and everything. it has been a lot of money. i would suggest that -- i am happy and glad to the supervisor and everybody to have that meeting to bring more attention to this issue and to help small business. this is helpful. i know that so many more businesses, this is why this meeting is important and to help small business people. i think to city hall to do something like a lawyer, from the lawyer to help this kind of blessed. the small-business -- you spend

the lawyer fee, is difficult. if city hall can provide a lawyer to of this lawsuit, it would be great and i am glad. i am glad david chiu is making a law to help these kinds of things. supervisor mar: thank you. commissioner mccarthy. thank you for being here. commissioner mccarthy: the testimony did an amazing job of laying out what the issues are and what small businesses have to do. i thought all this testament brought into one circle. we as a commission, we did have a hearing on this, and i heard about the businesses in your district.

to fill with these people have to go through to comply and it is difficult. we live in a city that most of the buildings and it was discussed here, the different departments do not necessarily agree on how we get there. for me, what came out of that hearing was -- not to be flippant about it, you are asking people to come in for a root canal so it is a difficult thing to comply. it does cost $5,000 or six dozen dollars to get an expert out. people will go from month to month in the businesses and staff. it is a hard scenario for them to say ok, i will take this upon myself. supervisor chiu is dealing with his legislation. if you do not have the landlord dealing with the owner, it is difficult to get legislation. the landlord worked with the owner and the actual issue got

resolved easier. that is a fundamental issue they're dealing with. the one outstanding thing i would say is the financial aspect burden, if we could figure on some way of supporting it that way, to make it an incentive for these businesses to comply would help a lot. we have good testament on the lawsuits. it is only a few small people that are doing it. it is not an industry. supervisor mar: what could dbi do more? >> the education and outreach program. that is something that would come forward and we can do that. we're hearing one more casp expert which is a step forward. we're looking forward to next year, we could figure out a way to do a line item for outreach. and a counter or you could go

and ask questions. that would go a long way. >> thank you for this the opportunity to speak. i wanted to make a brief comment with respect to outreach and how better we could perhaps accomplish that. one of the wonderful things that has happened is partnering with the office of small business through regina and other efforts to combine forces and go out into the communities and educate business owners. it is critical that the outrage be conducted in language other than english and that happened through merchant association groups as well as we're starting to partner with some of the entities out there that provide

pro bono legal assistance to business owners. they do not tend to happen -- handle disputes but weaving that component in to those workshops is another way to partner and broaden the outrage. -- outreach. supervisor mar: thank you. next speaker. >> i am the owner of a small business on twenty-fourth street. i have been as many business owners and struggling with this economy. we were named the heroes of this economy. everyone knows that we are struggling. we're getting up early and working long hours.

a lawsuit for us is something no one wants to see, no one wants to sever. i just asked to everybody if that is the way to treat a hero. we do not feel like a hero. i work for a dream that began nine years ago and today, maybe that's my business has been growing, hiring more employees. we really need help in these cases as business owners, as part of the economy. thank you. supervisor mar: thank you.

if there is anyone else that would like to speak, please come forward. we will close public comment in a moment. >> our firm has been mentioned quite a bit today. i want to flush out where it community-based organization and we're working with sf shines. we have done a lot of work along third street and done work in the mission. there's a lot of experience we have in terms of small businesses. for us, we look forward to this opportunity of melding our committed to work and working with different at risk communities, with small businesses. our work was always found it on folks being at risk or -- [unintelligible] this that's the mission of our organization. as technical architects and

planners, we have a lot of experience with the city entities, the mayor's office of housing, dpw, mod, we are looking forward to melding the experiences we have together to solve this problem. supervisor mar: thank you. is there anyone else who would like to speak? sitting in -- seeing none, public comment is closed. i would like to ask regina to come up and summarize. >> thank you. so i think i want to go back to the talk about us and outreach. while as much outreach and bodies we could put on the ground would be great. some of our solutions go beyond us which leads to the

recommendation or the request for the amendment to supervisor chui's legislation and mandating that the landlords to strip a brochure that is going to be provided by our office -- to provide a brochure that will be at our office. others may say differently that our office. i have had a couple of experiences where i have gone and given presentations to merchants associations and have stressed the concept that you are doing any improvements in that threshold, it should get a -- you should get a casp. with an evaluation threshold, you're not likely to be bringing our business up to full compliance. it is not required under the california building code. but i have architects who are then telling the business client, you are fine, you're

covered, and i sort of parrot the words they is which is different than the dbi uses. they say you have the disability act waiver, you're fine, you are covered. there entities who are not necessarily supporting the same language and the same emphasis of what we're doing. those holes and gaps need to be filled. at the local level, the recommendations i have is that we are encouraging dbi to escalade getting thei -0-- getting their inspectors trained and certified. as we see the need of the number of messages that are going through lawsuits, that we need to do as much as we can on the front end. also, as carla johnson

mentioned, we need to improve the coordination to help businesses resolve the complicated remedies they encounter with tomography and size of space. with the concept of what the program is and what it is intended to do, which will be a request that would go to the state and to the california commission on disability. how i see it is there needs to be someone who has the final authority, the final overview. i see it residing in dbi with a head casp inspector. if there are conflicting regulations with modification which i have seen a couple of times where businesses or -- are doing the equivalent

accommodation solution, they have that in their plans but it does not quite match up with what the historical preservation requirements are. those two things are -- can sometimes be in conflict and there needs to be banned from my perspective for individuals with disabilities and businesses, it is the inspector and the head inspector in its to be the final arbitrator and decisionmaker as to what will be the ultimate outcome for that. we do have businesses where there entrances are technically -- their entrances are technically unfeasible to change. you have to do demolition of the building or restructure and it would be good to get a registry of what those properties are. i would like to have a legal

requirement that for all architects working in or with san francisco businesses with tenant improvements that are under the evaluation threshold that they are required to inform their clients they may not be fully accessible. and businesses selling their businesses need to provide an inspection or report prior to -- as a means of disclosure. i do have some recommendations at the state and federal level but i do not know if you have those before you. unless you would like to read on, i would be happy to do so. >> we should just follow up on as much of the local staff we could do as possible. supervisor wiener suggested strong advocacy at the state and federal levels, advocating for our small businesses and for our city as well.

if you can wrap up on any other suggestions or recommendations. >> those are the core ones for the local. i do have some, carl johy -- carla johnson mentioned application to pre- accessibility improvements. if a business is proposing what dbi has as an equivalent accommodation, and if there is different departments you have different agreements about whether that should be approved, i think i am inclined to say businesses should not be incurring a pre application fee for that. because that is -- conflicts with internal city departments. but if a business wants to approach ahead of time or an architect, that may be different.

supervisor mar: thank you. let's go to the -- president chiu for his amendments and do that. we have posed -- closed public comments. president chiu: the legislation requires the city to get prior building applications for tenants that want to come into compliance with the ada laws. this is an amendment in 38.3. this would require landlords to bring common areas to make sure that they come into compliance with ada laws, or they are required to disclose to a tenant that the current property may not meet accessibility standards. we want to make sure that in places that tenants are informed that could be financially or legally a bet --

required to comply and require their baby in future releases the addressing of respective obligations of landlords and tenants to bring premises into compliance. another major portion which is an amendment that i have circulated at section 38.6 was suggested by the small business commission to develop notices and pamphlets in multiple languages that the small business commission would help to distribute regarding the federal, state, and local laws that could comply -- applied. what i'm trying to do is to make sure that the parties that could be impacted, commercial and large and small business tenants, are fully aware of what their obligations are at work as quickly as they can to negotiate how they're going to fix these issues but making sure that some of the common area issues are dealt with on the landlord's side. there are some technical clean- up changes in 30 appointed to streamline the definitions for

small business leases and tenants and 30.4, we state that is the director of building inspection and not the zoning administrator who determines whether a permit application qualifies for a priority under this law and under section 38.3, in the disability access improvement notice, to clarify the disclosure requirements apply to the least portion of the property and not to the entire property. -- the leased portion of the property and not the entire property. these are not substantive and can be adopted today forced to consider and move out if that is what the committee wishes to do. supervisor mar: do you have any remorse? -- remarks? can we accept this without objection? can we move this forward with a positive recommendation to the full board? without objection. thank you.

i will do my best to thank everyone for being here and a lot of great suggestions came forward not only on the local level but with strong advocacy of the state and federal level as well. i think the different department heads and community folks that came out, especially the small businesses for raising your voices. on this hearing, can we continue to the call of the chair? without objection. thank you. thank you for -- mr. evans. is there any other business? >> that concludes the agenda. >> meeting adjourned. -- supervisor mar: meeting adjourned. thank you.